HUMAN RIGHTS
Advocating for International Human Rights
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) was founded in 1991 to fight abuses of human rights based on sexual orientation or HIV status. It advocates for a world in which the fundamental rights of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and persons living with HIV/AIDS will be respected and accorded the protection of international human rights law.
IGLHRC monitors and documents human rights violations, exposing the most egregious cases and mobilizing urgent responses to them. Since 1993, IGLHRC has had a presence in Canada through its Canadian Working Group, a network of individuals committed to furthering the work of IGLHRC by working with government agencies, human rights NGOs and gay and lesbian groups in Canada.
IGLHRC combines traditional human rights monitoring, documenting, advocacy, and lobbying techniques with grass-roots organizing and support, including the distribution of material aid to groups in developing countries. Despite an increasing international consensus that the rights of sexual minorities belong on the agenda of the human rights movement, IGLHRC remains the only organization solely dedicated to advancing their human rights.
In the area of HIV/AIDS, articulating the link between human rights and health status is a challenge that few have responded to. Policy makers and opinion shapers often ignore connections between health and human rights. It is therefore important that human-rights groups emphasize that human rights abuses related to HIV status are not only a violation of human rights, but also a threat to public health. For example, an IGLHRC campaign directed against threats and acts of violence against an AIDS hospice in Bogota was targeted at the Colombian Ministry of Justice, but also at the Ministry of Public Health. In another case, a campaign emphasized that denial of legal registration to a gay AIDS NGO in Tegucigalpa was an infringement of freedom of association and a barrier to effective disease-control efforts.
Such actions force us to build powerful and sometimes unexpected coalitions; at the same time, they allow us to multiply the fora and institutions before which we can seek redress for the injustices suffered. The emancipation of and full societal integration of sexual minorities is in and of itself a desirable goal. Because of HIV/AIDS, it has become indispensable to the public's health in regions where there is an elevated risk for HIV infection: mobilizing the resources necessary to fight AIDS is impossible to muster where gay men, injection drug users, sex workers, and other socially marginalized groups are denied their full rights and privileges as civic, cultural, and social agents.
Divisions between AIDS work, gay and lesbian work, and human rights work need to be overcome. IGLHRC applies this principle to its own work and tries to be active in all three areas.
- Jorge Cortiñas
To find out more about IGLHRC's Canadian Working Group, contact: Canadian Working Group, 1-21 Graham Ave, Ottawa ONT K1S 1X2. To contact IGLHRC's head office, or to subscribe to its publication Emergency Response Network (available in English, French or Spanish), contact IGLHRC, 1360 Mission Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. Tel: (415) 255-8680; fax: (415) 255-8662; e-mail: iglhrc@igc.apc.org.
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